The Night Mail

[Flying Fox 34F]

Makes me recall Sir Lancelot Spratt of a certain group of hospital comedy films.

 

Paul

[GMKAT7]

Good morning folks,

 

The Boss (SWMBO) was recently a patient at the QMC Nottingham for the removal of a meningioma (benign brain tumour).

 

Having it discovered in 2018 the subsequent annual reviews showed minor growth until last year when the advice was it was time to get it out.

 

The consultant, who also covers child neurosurgery, is not what you would consider an 'old school ' consultant, so no suits/ties but rather more relaxed and colourful clothes as befits someone who deals regularly with children.

 

He is the East Midlands lead for child neurosurgery but talks to everyone in a calm, pleasant manner.

 

Having open surgery he managed to remove all but a few tumour cells, as shown in the subsequent post -op scan.

So, it is possible to have an A1 surgeon without grumpiness.

 

Although, at her first consultation, the Boss was initially disappointed to be waiting to see a 'Mr ' rather than a Dr '. Until I explained that the consultant was a Mr, so she was getting an expert to review her condition.

 

The QMC has had a bad press over maternity services but the care the Boss has received has been brilliant, including a post-op assessment some 7 weeks after surgery.

 

Cheers, Nigel.

[Winslow Boy]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

When I was working with drivers with disabilities, I used to work with quite a few stroke victims.

 

The worst case was a gentleman who was stroke blind:  I don't know all the technicalities of how it works, but in a nutshell vision is lost from one side of the eye, as if the eye ball had been cut down it's vertical centre.  This poor chap was stroke blind on the right of both eyes and I found out when I had to dual control him as he tried to emerge into the path of a 44 tonner.  Didn't you see that wagon?  I asked....

 

What wagon? was his reply.

 

So I can understand why they stopped Ashers from driving until a full DVLA approved field test has been done.

 

The DVLA will not accept a hospital field test as evidence of peripheral vision, the test has to be carried out by one of their authorised providers who run a more comprehensive test than offered by the NHS ophthalmology departments.

 

The DVLA are looking for specific anomalies in the fields of vision rather than the more general peripheral vision covered by the hospital. 

 

I made up a mask to simulate stroke blindness, and you do not realise you are blind down one side until you start walking into door frames or tripping over tables.

 

It's quite unnerving.

 

 

My mother lost her eye when she was a child and one of the things she had to learn was to turn her head. She was always amazed that she was allowed to drive and often said that if she had made the decision she would have been refused. I could never understand why  until she made me drive with one eye covered.

[polybear]

4 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

THE CURSE OF 3MM

 

At Warley last year, I was “seduced” (which I think is the appropriate term in my case) into downsizing from 4mm to 3mm. Starting completely from scratch I’ll be adhering to fine-scale standards and this where “The Curse of 3mm” strikes (to be a tad melodramatic). Track, Turn-Outs/Points are very easily sourced; buildings? I’ve scratch built enough in 4mm and 7mm that 3mm holds no terrors, wagons? readily available from the 3mm society - but coaching stock and locomotives? That’s where I am truly curséd.

 

I really don’t have the expertise to build the motorised chassis for locomotives (although my intention is to have only a couple of tank engines) and finding coaching stock is a bit of a minefield (sides, chassis, bogies, ends, donor vehicles, etc.). Unfortunately, the relatively easily accessible Hornby TT is of no help (I think Hornby missed a trick by going to TT instead of 3mm).

 

Can anyone suggest an idiots guide to building tank engine locomotives (as in <you’ll need x, y, z and then it’s step 1, step 2, etc>).

 

Of course another curse of switching from 4mm to 3mm is getting rid of 4mm rolling stock and buildings (anyone interested in The Brunel Pub or The Georgian Terrace Houses? [amongst other things]).

Easy.  

(a) Missenden Abbey

(b) Possibly……

[Happy Hippo]

3 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

My mother lost her eye when she was a child and one of the things she had to learn was to turn her head. She was always amazed that she was allowed to drive and often said that if she had made the decision she would have been refused. I could never understand why  until she made me drive with one eye covered.

The other issue with driving when you only have one eye is the loss of stereoscopic vision.

 

This means you not only have to do a lot more head turning, 'the Messerschmitt twitch', which saved a lot of fighter pilots lives, but more importantly you lose your perception of depth.

 

It's a bit like following a car in fog which is displaying a single fog lamp to the rear.  Is is 2 metres away, or 20 metres away?  Whereas the sensible Germans who insist on vehicles having two rear fog lamps, do it so that your brain has some hope of estimating the distance apart the lamps are and consequently the distance you are away from them.

 

The most critical point of driving using only one eye is when overtaking, where the perception of depth becomes critical.

[Winslow Boy]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

The other issue with driving when you only have one eye is the loss of stereoscopic vision.

 

This means you not only have to do a lot more head turning, 'the Messerschmitt twitch', which saved a lot of fighter pilots lives, but more importantly you lose your perception of depth.

 

It's a bit like following a car in fog which is displaying a single fog lamp to the rear.  Is is 2 metres away, or 20 metres away?  Whereas the sensible Germans who insist on vehicles having two rear fog lamps, do it so that your brain has some hope of estimating the distance apart the lamps are and consequently the distance you are away from them.

 

The most critical point of driving using only one eye is when overtaking, where the perception of depth becomes critical.

My mother was a very good driver precisely because she had to think things through prior to undertaking them. Something which a lot of drivers don't do.

When I got 'ill' the second time I was unable to drive. Luckily my mother was still able to drive otherwise I wouldn't have been able to get around at all. When I finally recovered enough to get back behind the wheel she was very grateful.

[iL Dottore]

49 minutes ago, GMKAT7 said:

 

So, it is possible to have an A1 surgeon without grumpiness.

 

Of course expertise and a good bedside manner aren’t mutually exclusive (and I was referring to 40+ years ago).

 

A grumpy bedside manner isn’t necessarily indicative of expertise, or a good bedside manner necessarily indicative of so-so clinical expertise. Doctors, after all, are human (well sort of) with the foibles and strengths of that species…

[Happy Hippo]

THE CURSE OF 3 MM SCALE

 

Some years ago I was a keen 16 mm scale modeller:  I ditched it, and moved up to 7/8" to the foot because I wanted to go back to the original 16 mm concept, where most things had to be hand built or seriously modified.  Of course as it's popularity soared, so did the manufacturing base, so it is now quite possible to build a complete garden railway off the shelf. (Of course you do need deep pockets and a very flexible credit card.)

 

Fast forward to my current excursion in 7 mm scale, which I only took up as I was into my 6th decade, and I deliberately opted for 7 mm scale as I had enough space for a shunting plank, and there was a trickle of affordable rtr stuff filtering onto the market.

 

Having come from 7/8ths and also dabbling in both EM and P4, the last thing I wanted to do with my latest railway projects was to spend all my time scratch building locos, rolling stock, signals and track.

 

Having written that, I will admit to enjoying track making and also building signals, and I do have kits of locos and rolling stock in various boxes. but I am currently enjoying railway modelling far more than I did over the previous decade before I jumped into 7 mm scale.

 

One potential route to ease your angst over supplies, would be to scour the 3mm Scale society second hand sales pages and buy up a small fleet of stock that can get you started.  It is far more fun having stuff to operate with, and then add to it, rather than having to start with a completely blank piece of paper.  It doesn't even have to be in your preferred time period or location.  It just needs to be stuff that gets you operating.

 

This approach will make the creation of your 3 mm scale far les arduous and will probably encourage you to get stuck into more exotic builds.

 

Even the original Triang TT might be a source, even if you might have to re gauge it all to 14.2mm gauge.

 

 

Edited April 11 by Happy Hippo

[Winslow Boy]

22 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Of course expertise and a good bedside manner aren’t mutually exclusive (and I was referring to 40+ years ago).

 

A grumpy bedside manner isn’t necessarily indicative of expertise, or a good bedside manner necessarily indicative of so-so clinical expertise. Doctors, after all, are human (well sort of) with the foibles and strengths of that species…

Wow you learn something new on here everyday. Who'd had thought a doctor- even if it is a learned and most esteemed one at that, admitting that his fellow brethren are in fact human. I always thought they £_&£#  @£&   &_ _&£#+ censored due to 'delicate constitution' of fellow TNM's

 

Here endith the lesson from someone who has a 'very low' opinion of doctors.

Edited April 11 by Winslow Boy

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

I am glad to read that Mrs br2975 was seen with speed and efficiency.
 

However, I would like to comment that given a choice between a doctor with a curt and abrupt bedside manner with outstanding clinical skills and expertise and a doctor with a smooth and reassuring bedside manner and so-so clinical skills and expertise, I’d take Dr Grumpy any day.

 

Many decades ago, when I was working in the hospital, I noted that some of the very best clinicians were those with the poorest bedside manners. One neurosurgeon in particular had a hair trigger temper in the operating theatre (things had to be “just so” and he did NOT tolerate any sloppiness in technique) and was brutally blunt with the patients (along the lines of “I’ll remove the tumour but you’ll be permanently impaired”j and yet he was the neurosurgeon of choice for incredibly complex procedures.

 

Thinking about the above, I wonder how much was an act?

My late friend and modelling companion,Mr John Patrick was an outstanding orthopod.  He actually made artificial hips work and be long lasting but Charney stole the credit. By chance the wife of another club member came to the club one night and later told me that she couldn't believe the different person Mr Patrick had bee when working on a layout. She had been a theatre nurse with him and described him as an absolute tartar in theatre. 

 

Having two uncles who were Dr's and 'characters' I had no false impressions of them. 

 

Jamie

[New Haven Neil]

25 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

so it is now quite possible to build a complete garden railway off the shelf. (Of course you do need deep pockets and a very flexible credit card.)

 

Thus explaining my multi-millionaire status.  Not!  🤣  It was great to be involved with the trade when it was a happy place to be.

 

As for doctors, well the surgeon who fixed my hip was certainly grumpy, and then some, but did a good job so no complaints there.  That was over your way, at Wrightington, @Winslow Boy  (Edit - that was where the Charnley that Jamie mentions above, worked.)The guy that fixed my foot here is notorious for being grumpy with staff but nice to patients, he was really pleasant with me, most supportive but realistic, and I didn't hear him be rude to staff.  A friend's daughter that worked with him for a while said he had mellowed in middle age!  She wanted his job but he wasn't in a hurry to leave.

 

However....when I recruited doctors for a living for a while as a medical staffing officer, I met some right stinkers.  Too many in fact, I moved on from that job, before the attitudes and negativity did for me.  The NHS did 'do' for me in the end, but that wasn't anything to do with doctors!

Edited April 11 by New Haven Neil

[PhilJ W]

4 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

My mother lost her eye when she was a child and one of the things she had to learn was to turn her head. She was always amazed that she was allowed to drive and often said that if she had made the decision she would have been refused. I could never understand why  until she made me drive with one eye covered.

Not only drivers but pilots.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiley_Post

I was surprised when watching 'Air Crash Investigators' a few years ago that an airline pilot was allowed to carry on flying commercial airlines after he lost an eye. He was flying the aircraft that crashed but IIRC his having only one eye was not a factor in the crash.

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

THE CURSE OF 3 MM SCALE

 

Some years ago I was a keen 16 mm scale modeller:  I ditched it, and moved up to 7/8" to the foot because I wanted to go back to the original 16 mm concept, where most things had to be hand built or seriously modified.  Of course as it's popularity soared, so did the manufacturing base, so it is now quite possible to build a complete garden railway off the shelf. (Of course you do need deep pockets and a very flexible credit card.)

 

Fast forward to my current excursion in 7 mm scale, which I only took up as I was into my 6th decade, and I deliberately opted for 7 mm scale as I had enough space for a shunting plank, and there was a trickle of affordable rtr stuff filtering onto the market.

 

Having come from 7/8ths and also dabbling in both EM and P4, the last thing I wanted to do with my latest railway projects was to spend all my time scratch building locos, rolling stock, signals and track.

 

Having written that, I will admit to enjoying track making and also building signals, and I do have kits of locos and rolling stock in various boxes. but I am currently enjoying railway modelling far more than I did over the previous decade before I jumped into 7 mm scale.

 

One potential route to ease your angst over supplies, would be to scour the 3mm Scale society second hand sales pages and buy up a small fleet of stock that can get you started.  It is far more fun having stuff to operate with, and then add to it, rather than having to start with a completely blank piece of paper.  It doesn't even have to be in your preferred time period or location.  It just needs to be stuff that gets you operating.

 

This approach will make the creation of your 3 mm scale far les arduous and will probably encourage you to get stuck into more exotic builds.

 

Even the original Triang TT might be a source, even if you might have to re gauge it all to 14.2mm gauge.

 

 

All very useful info, thanks HH.

 

So, if I’ve go this straight, current Hornby TT offerings are 1:120 (or 2.54mm/ft)  but the original Triang TT was 1:101.6 (3mm to 1 foot)?
 

Thus this would mean/could mean that I can plunder an old Triang TT loco for the chassis and upgrade motor & wheel sets and take a Triang TT coach, change out the wheels and with a bit of super-detailing get a decent carriage out of the exercise. 
 

Or not?
 

I’m afraid I have to differ with you HH, for me the fun is in the building - which is why I’ll be happily be “upcycling” all the bespoke and dimensionally accurate  4mm buildings that I have scratch built (some of which I’ve featured on RMWeb). I’ve had my fun with them and they can go to a good home.

 

My planned layout will be relatively small - even though the apartment I’m moving to has a greater m2 wohnflache than the current house (mainly because the hobby room* will be shared with Mrs iD 😢). So it’ll be a rural station, probably GWR and will involve tank engines (possibly panniers). I plan to have no more than 4 locos and about 6 to 9 coaches.

 

And I’ll probably “upcycle” the layout when I’m done….

 

* I’ll be moving away from brass rod, plasticard and the like and go for laser cutting/engraving and 3D printing

[Happy Hippo]

A busy morning at Trayne Klubbe with lots of fiddling and painting going on.

 

Gordon left, and we had just finished lunch when Dave and Jill arrived in desperate need of a drink, after his hospital appointment.

 

He found out that wearing a smart Hippo branded shirt got him elevated to a comfy seat in the sitting room rather than his usual position of a hard wooden seat in the garage.

 

 

[Winslow Boy]

49 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

A busy morning at Trayne Klubbe with lots of fiddling and painting going on.

 

Gordon left, and we had just finished lunch when Dave and Jill arrived in desperate need of a drink, after his hospital appointment.

 

He found out that wearing a smart Hippo branded shirt got him elevated to a comfy seat in the sitting room rather than his usual position of a hard wooden seat in the garage.

 

 

I take it was a straight double gin with no tonic for Ramrod and a Ginger Ale for you then. Did the Squadron Leaders better half stick to sherry?

[Happy Hippo]

56 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

I take it was a straight double gin with no tonic for Ramrod and a Ginger Ale for you then. Did the Squadron Leaders better half stick to sherry?

Jill and Nyda had a pot of Earl Grey Rainbow tea.

Ramrod was on his standard an Avtur/Avtag mix and I was taking the usual muddy hollow water infused with pond weed.

[Dave Hunt]

Well, this morning's visit to Telfland hospital was a great deal simpler, more informative and far less stressful than the earlier part of this week. I was seen at the appointed time and given the necessary ultrasound scan (once I had pointed out to the operative that she was scanning the wrong leg) then after only a few minutes saw a consultant. The diagnosis was the I do not have a DVT but a less nasty thing called a superficial thrombophlebitis that can be treated with a heparin based cream and anticoagulant tablets. However, the consultant did say that it was a good thing I had it looked at as had it been a couple of inches higher up my leg or a bit deeper it could have been a lot more serious and in any case recent research has suggested that it is not as benign as once thought. As he was looking at my notes he started to frown and asked me to describe the events of the last four days and as I went through the sorry tale he started making notes that he cross-referred to those in the file. The only thing that I could see of what he wrote was at the end when he added in capitals CALL XXX (a name) and circled it. From his demeanour and his questioning of me it was obvious that he was not happy with the way in which I had been treated and I got the impression that he was going to take issue with someone.

 

Anyway, the bottom line is that I am now a much happier bunny than of late.

 

Dave  

[Dave Hunt]

An addendum to my last: one of the things I was told could exacerbate my condition is the recent finding that exposure to the colour generally described as Brunswick Green, copper caps and the word pannier can be detrimental. I pointed this out to HH as we arrived at the Muddy Hollow and once he had thrown a large blanket over the contents of his modelling bench we enjoyed a convivial visit.

 

Dave   

[Tony_S]

6 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

An addendum to my last: one of the things I was told could exacerbate my condition is the recent finding that exposure to the colour generally described as Brunswick Green, copper caps and the word pannier can be detrimental. I pointed this out to HH as we arrived at the Muddy Hollow and once he had thrown a large blanket over the contents of his modelling bench we enjoyed a convivial visit.

 

Dave   

I did wonder if being exposed to anything that could increase blood pressure would be detrimental when I noticed you had visited the Hippodrome. 
I am glad the lump isn’t as worrying as thought. Modelling while taking anticoagulants can be interesting, I could write “Weathering with Blood”.  

[iL Dottore]

16 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

An addendum to my last: one of the things I was told could exacerbate my condition is the recent finding that exposure to the colour generally described as Brunswick Green, copper caps and the word pannier can be detrimental. I pointed this out to HH as we arrived at the Muddy Hollow and once he had thrown a large blanket over the contents of his modelling bench we enjoyed a convivial visit.

 

Dave   

I've read about that too.

 

Now where was it where I read it????

 

Ahh, Yes.... "Conspiracy Theory Nutters Monthly"

 

Anyone who is properly qualified to pronounce on such matters will be able to tell you that GWR Green (aka Brunswick Green) is one of the colours prescribed by The Buddha for aligning the chakras and achieving inner balance and harmony.

 

Any deleterious effect experienced is purely psychosomatic, Dave, purely psychosomatic.

[Dave Hunt]

2 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

IAnyone who is properly qualified to pronounce on such matters will be able to tell you that GWR Green (aka Brunswick Green) is one of the colours prescribed by The Buddha for aligning the chakras........

 

I'll have you know, Sir, that I haven't needed my chakras aligning since the slightly eye-watering experience when glancing a fast delivery to the onside onto the underside of my protector.

 

Dave

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Ramrod was on his standard an Avtur/Avtag mix.........

 

The AVM must be mellowing - I had him down as a fully qualified IPN drinker.

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

An addendum to my last: one of the things I was told could exacerbate my condition is the recent finding that exposure to the colour generally described as Brunswick Green, copper caps and the word pannier can be detrimental. I pointed this out to HH as we arrived at the Muddy Hollow and once he had thrown a large blanket over the contents of his modelling bench we enjoyed a convivial visit.

 

Dave   

Blanket?

 

It was a small marquee!

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Blanket?

 

It was a small marquee!

It's obvious that the small libation that Ramrod consumed had an adverse effect on his memory. Had he been self medicating as well.

[SM42]

Cadent and their works on the A456 have reached a new low in weird 

 

A two lane road with a wide central chevron area that used to be a third lane

 

Temporary traffic lights installed. 

 

Plenty of room for two lanes of traffic  and the works on the pavement / kerb line. 

 

And they wonder why drivers get frustrated. 

 

 

This mornings trip into work was very blue light service heavy. Five police cars and three ambulances in total

 

The first police car overtook me just after the above roadworks. A mile further on it joined two unmarked cars on the dual carriageway, blocking the road. 

 

Looked like I would be late till it moved into the right hand lane in front of the other two cars  to let the traffic through.

Meanwhile the truck driver behind me was getting a little frustrated as I have left a whole car length between me and the car in front whilst we waited. 

 

A colleague told the three police cars were still there an hour later when he went past. 

 

Very odd

 

Another two unmarked cars were parked on the roundabout ( blocking one lane, blue  lights on) at the M5 junction.

 

Again  an odd place to park. 

 

It's not like you could see the motorway from there. 

 

Even on the way home there were a few unmarked cars tazzing about on the blues. 

 

I don't think I've seen so many police cars in one day ( except perhaps the day I was rammed by a getaway car) 

 

Its not like HH had even left Telfland. 

 

 

Andy